TagUnited Kingdom

I still remember when studying European Integration at Saarland University 1980-1982, that Britain at that time was so much bothered with buying butter from Denmark. They ultimately refused it and continued to buy their butter from New Zealand. That was for me a signal of non-integration, while the matter sounds almost ridiculous, but in terms of economics it’s not. Britain was adhering to their old alliances, remembrance of their great British Commonwealth.

By the way, this is an interesting word. Common Wealth. Yes. It’s exactly the European Idea. But Britain defines it differently than the other five founding members of the Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft as founded in 1975 and named EWG.

I cannot mention all of Britain’s great economic achievements here after Thatcher, but one is so noteworthy that it must be mentioned. It was Margaret Thatcher’s great idea to revive housing and transform it into a lively investment business. That idea worked. I keep receiving interesting mailings from British real estate companies from Manchester to London offering me student housing investment for 8% p.a., five years guaranteed rental. And I have studied one or two of these projects in depth and was on the phone with the agent for quite a time, having a good impression. It’s a good return and the substance is well-built, solid, and professional. No foul deals.

This is just one tiny aspect of the new prosperous Britain, not to mention the incredible profits that are made by real estate companies in London for high-end properties. It’s around 30% p.a. and more for celebrity sites that go into the hundreds of millions each.

And please, then, be open-minded enough to contrast that with certain Nordic and Eastern EU members who are at the border of state bankruptcy. Why should Britain continue to finance them?

Let me advance a second point. When Britain does something it is done thoroughly, not just superficially and so to speak showmanly. Housing for refugees is known to be of much better quality compared to Germany, let alone the standards in France, Italy, or Greece. That involves more money, and more accuracy and sense of detail.

David Cameron signs into this tradition, a man who is known for his clear statements, very much contrasting those of other European leaders, except Angela Merkel. And it therefore does not come as a surprise that recently Merkel and Cameron had very good talks. That makes sense. When there is Brexit, there will be a new start of British-German bilateral relationships, outside of the EU framework, and I have an intuition they will prime all others within Europe. For Merkel does understand Cameron while most other EU members just frown upon Brexit, which is not a constructive response.

One may be critical about the idea of Greece leaving the EU, but with Britain it is a totally different matter. Those who will suffer from Brexit are of course those qualified workers and businesses who are German or French and are thriving in Britain. But I am sure constructive solutions can be found bilaterally between Britain and France and Germany, respectively, so I see no problem here.